Dates

• Existence: 1916 - 1919

Historical Note: Wright-Martin Aircraft Corporation

The Wright-Martin Company was a short-lived aircraft manufacturing company formed in 1916 through a merger of the Wright Company and Glenn L. Martin Company, both aircraft manufacturing firms. The company was incorporated in the state of New York. The merged company also included ownership of the Simplex Automobile Company. The company operated the Martin plant in California, the Wright factory in Ohio, and the Simplex plant in New Brunswick, New Jersey. They also controlled flying fields in Los Angeles, California and on Long Island, New York.

Upon the merger of the companies, Glenn L. Martin became vice president overseeing aircraft production and development, though he remained in Los Angeles. During World War I Wright-Martin focused on engine production, delivering 5,816 Hispano-Suizas by November 1919.

Just as the Wright Company had done before, the company guarded its patents protectively, in particular continuing in the “patent war” against Glenn Curtiss and other aviators. The patent wars were effectively ended through U.S. government intervention during World War I when a patent pool was created. The company’s only original aircraft design was the Wright-Martin Model V.

Within a year of the founding of Wright-Martin Company, Glenn Martin resigned. He then re-formed the Martin Company. By 1919 the Wright-Martin Company reorganized and became the Wright Aeronautical Corporation.

Places

• New York (State) (Residence)